Actually, in my experience, its pretty unusual. This kind of offense is actually called a "welfare crime", where someone does something illegal just to go to jail, where it is warm, dry, and they get food and medical care. There are lots of cases where elderly people who can't afford the medical expenses will commit a similar crime (robbing banks seems to be a favorite) and then hope that the criminal justice system will take care of them. It's a sad commentary.

Mandatory sentencing practices disrupt the concepts of "justice" all the more as politicians attempt to "deter" certain types of crime with harsher sentences or "mandatory" jail time. Take for example a man just convicted of a federal felony drug possession. He gets five years with a mandatory jail time of two years. Now the prison is out of room and they have a murderer who was incarcerated on a forty year prison term with a fifteen year mandatory jail time. The murderer has already served sixteen years, so they let him out because they HAVE TO keep the drug dealer in for TWO.

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I'm using an old photo of my grandfather as an avatar; he would have been amused.
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